About Us

K12IRC.org is a totally free and independent resource, a project of the Bonnie and Marty Tenenbaum Foundation. We receive no corporate or government funding.

We are an entirely-free-to-use resource for the K-12 community, with no payment, registration or e-mail address requirements.

K12IRC.org catalogs over 2,300 web and video resources. Dive in and learn something new. Do a search, check out some suggestions, or scan the Table of Contents.

If you'd like to stay informed, join our quarterly newsletter mailing list.

Our Story

Back in the 1995, the Internet as we know it today was just getting organized. There were only 23,500 web sites on the entire Internet (vs. 1.6 billion sites in 2019). Yahoo's tree index – a collection of static web pages – was the "Google" Internet index of the day.

The National Science Foundation saw a need for an index site like Yahoo, but dedicated specifically to educators, explaining the Internet and indexing and organizing education specific resources.

The Virtual Public Library - Instructional Media Center - vpl-imc.org - was the result of that 1995 NSF initiative.

As with most initiatives, funding eventually ended for the web site. Rather than shutting down this resource, Dr. Bonnie Tenenbaum, one of the original site creators, adopted the site on behalf of the Bonnie and Marty Tenenbaum Foundation.

Over the years this site has gone thru a number of reorganizations – and a couple of name changes – as it adjusts to the evolution of the Internet and the changing needs of its core audience, the K-12 education community.

Today, rather than trying to be all things to all people, we are focused on highlighting best-of-breed resources, ideas for interdisciplinary learning, and to be a clearinghouse for educator concerns and needs.

We receive no government or corporate funding. This allows us to be an independent voice, indexing the-best-of-the-web for the K-12 education community without restrictions or agenda.

Dr. Bonnie Tenenbaum - Librarian

librarian3@k12irc.org

Dr. Tenenbaum has maintained the library since its inception and continues to curate content and provide support & guidance on behalf of the Bonnie and Marty Tenenbaum Foundation.

larger image of https://www.lodesys.com/

Lodestone Systems

Lodestone Systems has been involved with the site since 1999 and provides web site hosting and technical support.

Chris Daley - Webmaster

chris@k12irc.org

Chris Daley, owner of Lodestone Systems, is the webmaster for the site. He created all the code used for the current site and helps maintain the collection.

Additional Thanks

Richard "Rick" Loek provided the initial programming support when Dr. Tenenbaum (on behalf of the Bonnie and Marty Tenenbaum Foundation) first adopted the site.